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pan and, half-filling itwith thick slices of fat pork, set it to sizzling merrily on the stove. As if this were not enough, he soon contrived to spill some of the grease onto the stove lid where it sent up a billowing oily smoke which filled the whole forepeak.
    There was a stifled groan from Barnes. Suddenly the merchant rolled off the bunk, staggered to his feet and made a rush up the companion ladder for the deck. Kye watched him go, with a wicked grin on his face.
    â€œMaybe that’ll teach ye to be more polite, ye old goat,” he muttered to himself. Whistling happily he stowed the pan of pork fat in a locker and began warming up the pot of brewis and boiling the tea kettle.
    By two o’clock that afternoon Black Joke had come abeam the mouth of Bay Despair. Now Jonathan took the wheel and brought the ship around on the other tack so that her course lay northward between Whale Rock and the mainland. This was not the main entrance but a shortcut or “inside” passage, full of sunkers (as reefs and shoal rocks are called in Newfoundland). It was the kind of place ships would normally stay well away from unless their pilots knew the waters well. However, Jonathan knew the passage perfectly, and he was anxious to get well into the Bay before nightfall so he had chosen the inside route in order to save time.
    The passage through the sunkers was wildly exhilarating to the two boys. The ocean surge, bursting on the myriad reefs, sent great towers of spray billowing up on either side of Black Joke , and so close to her that wind-driven foam fell all across her decks. Boiling along withall sheets started, she was sailing so fast that an inexperienced observer would have been certain she was going to smash headlong into one of the unseen sunkers whose presence was revealed only by the swirling waters over them.
    Barnes was not inexperienced, but on previous voyages, usually in his own schooners, his captains had carefully chosen the less spectacular passages. Despite his heaving stomach he was still able to take notice, and he was horrified at what he saw.
    â€œDamn you, Spence!” he cried from his position hanging half over the lee rail. “Are you trying to drown us and sink the vessel? Get her out of this, you hear!”
    Now, once at sea, the master of a ship is simply that–the master. Only a very foolhardy passenger, even if he has chartered the vessel, would dare criticize the master’s judgment. The arrogance of this merchant in attempting to give him sailing orders was enough to fire Jonathan’s temper to white heat. He managed to control himself, and he made no reply; but as far as he was concerned the brief truce between himself and the merchant–which had resulted from the charter–was at an end.
    Clearing the inside passage, Black Joke ran down the main opening of the Bay past the little outport of Push-through and into the Lampidose Passage, whose towering cliff walls lead to the head of the bay and to the twin villages of Milltown and St. Albans. The wind held steady and an hour before dusk Black Joke was abeam of Milltown.
    When the lines were fast to the wharf, and the ship settled for the night, Jonathan joined the two boys in the forepeak. Barnes had gone ashore.
    It was Peter’s turn to act as cook and he was just dishing up supper when his father climbed down the ladder and took his place at the table.
    Jonathan looked at the two boys for a moment.
    â€œFor a pair of tom-cods with no brains and not much brawn, ye do all right,” he said, smiling. “Give me a month or two, and I’ll make sailors out of ye…or else.”
    Kye and Peter caught each other’s glance. Neither would have admitted it, but they were as pleased as only two boys can be who have been told they can do a man’s job and do it well.

 

    4

    Encounter with a Salmon
    T UCKED snugly in their bunks, with the water lapping against the vessel’s planks to quiet